Even before 2008, people had lodged their grievances – in vain. Granted, some of the demands, such as ‘all foreigners should go’ are absurd. These grievances are, however, nothing else but a symptom of the underlying problems. Imagine yourself as a law-abiding small businessman, jumping through numerous legislative hoops, only to see yourself lose business to a foreign-owned shop that doesn’t bother about labour laws, BEE, taxes or even basic health and safety regulations. Obviously, these foreign shops can offer goods cheaper.
But even if these businesses are honest, tax-paying businesses, the low-end market is only so big. Most SME owners don’t have the skills or resources to ‘stand out from the crowd’. Government had seven years to address these underlying issues. The fact that xenophobia has again reared its ugly head is proof that not enough was done. Yet again we have large numbers of people making demands of government, and in typical South African fashion, ignoring proper channels for lobbying government.
Sad to say, mass demonstrations seem to be getting the best results, and the more violent they are, the better. Where does that leave those who follow the correct channels for lobbying government?
Agriculture has been lobbying government for years with suggestions for land reform and transformation – to little avail. This poses the obvious question: what impact does lobbying really have?
And should government be expected to jump every time one or other group make demands? How does government determine the real ‘will of the people’? After all, you can’t hold a referendum every time a decision needs to be made.
The annual ANC indaba is supposed to guide the ruling party in this regard. So why are there so many protest actions if the party is indeed adhering to the will of the people?
In this week’s ‘By Invitation’ column, Glen Ashton points out how much power big corporates have when it comes to lobbying those in government. As political parties are not obliged to declare the source of donations, one can only speculate on how obliged they feel to adhere to ‘requests’ from donors once in power.
In contrast, Asuf has presented government with a single, clear policy on land reform. Apart from the view on land ceilings, Afasa, Agri SA, TAU SA and Nafu are presenting a united front. Now we’ll see how much importance government really places on farmers, black and white. It has stated that it wants what is best for agriculture. The sector has told it how these goals can be achieved.
I hope for the sake of the country’s undernourished population that government makes the most of the opportunity to steer the sector in the right direction.
